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Just returned this weekend from 2 weeks in Barcelona and Morocco. We had a wonderful time on our trip. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Barcelona and would go back in a heartbeat. I definitely want to explore more of Spain on another trip. The food was fabulous and all the Gaudi architecture was fascinating to see. A very easy city to get around in. We had a great hotel in a fabulous location.
Morocco was INCREDIBLE! Not just the sights, but the sounds and the smells. Zaid, our driver, was great - we really enjoyed him. The camel ride and night in the Berber tent were fantastic. You just sort of sit on the back of this camel thinking - Wow! I am actually riding a camel in the Sahara desert right now. Tons of great shopping in Marakkech and Fez - the medinas are like nothing you have ever seen.

Before I start writing my detailed report I thought I would give a quick background. We are a family of 4, my husband (DH) and I are in our early 40’s, daughter (DD) is 14.5 and a freshman in highschool, son(DS) is 11.5 and in 5th grade. For many years we spent spring break in Arizona, DisneyWorld or Hawaii. Then in March of 2005 I decided it was time to start seeing the world! In March 2005 we went to Italy for 2 weeks (Rome, Venice, Florence). It was such a success in March 2006 our family spent a week each in London and Paris and brought my parents along. Then in June 2006, to celebrate our 20th anniversary we went with the kids to Italy again for 3 weeks (Piedmonte, Ligurian Coast, Tuscany and Rome). As you can see I have officially become a Fodorite travel junkie!!

The most often asked question of us before we left was why are you going to Morocco?? It was a good question, as when we started thinking about where to go for spring break, it certainly wasn’t on my list of places to go. However, our trip to London/Paris last March was quite cold and windy. We were hoping for someplace a bit warmer – it didn’t have to be hot beach weather – just someplace where we didn’t need coat, hat, gloves and scarf every moment. DH had a friend who was in Morocco at the same time we were in London/Paris and came home raving about it – DH’s ears particularly perked up at the above 70 degree weather every day. My first thought was Morocco – are you crazy?? We had never been to a non-Western, Muslim country, nor anything quite that exotic. But as I started to research it, I began to learn that while not as many American tourists go as Europeans, it is a major European holiday destination, and it is extremely safe. I did decide that I wasn’t quite ready to spend our whole 2 weeks there (although I knew that we could) but decided to start in Barcelona for 5 nights, which for us, was an excellent idea.

I did most of my research on Fodors and Trip Advisor with a few guide books thrown in. I planned Barcelona and Marakkech on our own, but used Blue Men of Morocco for our private trip to the desert and Fez (great organization – more details to follow). Thanks in particular to laclaire whose comments about the desert trip got me committed and to laartista whose excellent trip report got me counting down the days to our own trip. I was excited and no longer worried, until the Monday before we were to leave on Friday, I read on Trip Advisor that there was a suicide bombing in Casablanca – YIKES! Here is a link to a brief story about it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6440661.stm.

I told my husband about it, and we just decided to continue monitoring it, we would be spending our first 5 nights in Barcelona and if things ratcheted up we could just stay in Spain. Well, the next day they made a wave of arrests and after that there was apparently very little additional info. on the story. Morocco does have a reputation for swiftly dealing with terrorists as they did after the 2003 Casablanca bombings. We figured we could have been in London during the tube bombings or Madrid during the night club bombings…..so we decided to keep with our plans. We are very glad we did. We felt very safe and welcome the whole time we were there and I would not hestitate to return.

Looking forward to your report!! Missypie reported back. I knew you would be reporting soon, since you two were travelling about the same time to Barcelona. How do your kid's get off so much time for spring break??

Michelle - my daughter is in a private school, they start the school year a week earlier than the public school but get 2 weeks at spring break - which we LOVE. My son is in the public school, so doesn't get the two weeks, but we just take him out of school for a week. It has not been a problem so far, and next year he will be at the same school as my daughter (yea!!)

Missypie - I read your report on my blackberry while we were in Barcelona, and used your tip for the Textile Museum - it was great - I don't know how I missed that in all my research, as my daughter LOVES fashion. I was glad we were able to fit it in after reading your report.

Someday when you have more time, you'll have to tell me how you were able to access this board on your Blackberry. I have a Blackberry phone, and the utility of the browser feature is close to useless. I've never been able to access this board from there.

missypie - I wish I knew enough about my blackberry to actual explain technicallyhow I am able to get on it, but I don't. Basically I just go to www.fodors.com/community/ The site comes up and I am able to scroll down to pick "Europe". Click on that, then I get a page that states "topFrame" "topicFrame" "msgFrame". Click on "topicFrame". From there all the Europe posts come up. I am not able to add any posts nor am I able to sort by country under say Europe or US (although my husbands newest model can do that).

WTnow - I know exactly what you mean about being excited and nervous, I felt the same way. Once I arrived in Morocco, however, I completely forgot about feeling nervous - there is nothing to be worried about.

Saturday, March 17

We had 3 flights to get to Barcelona and they were all on time with no delays. Our only glitch was that it took over an hour for our luggage to come out. Particularly annoying as our past 2 overseas trips we did only carryon, but changed for this trip as we were expecting to need more space for stuff we would be buying.

We all immediately noticed how nice the Barcelona airport was. DS said 'They get props for their airport', and DD was already anxiously awaiting the shopping, just seeing the stores in the airport.

We decided to take the Aerobus for 3.90 euro. It drops you off right at Placa Catalyuna. Very convenient to our hotel, although would have been even more convenient if we had known to just cross the Placa, but we were a bit disoriented so walked a bit further with our luggage then we needed to.

We were staying at the Hotel Pulitzer on Via Bergara just off the Placa Catalyuna. It was a nice quiet street and a very nice modern hotel. There were a few glitches with our reservation at first, but I had copies of all the e-mails and everything was taken care of to my satisfaction. The staff was very nice and extremely helpful throughout our stay.

We were lucky enough never to be pickpocketed or have anything stolen, but on our arrival we did learn the lesson to always be vigilant. As we were checking in, another couple came in with their luggage. As the husband was checking in the wife was waiting with the luggage. She apparently stepped away for a moment, when she came back she said 'It's gone! My bag (purse) was right here and now it is gone!' No one saw anything, although the hotel said they had a running tape of the lobby and they could watch it. I saw the lady the next morning at breakfast and asked what happened. She said they watched the tape and saw a man come in take her purse and then crouch down and leave. We were all standing right there in the lobby, but no one noticed. They went to the police to file a report, but they were pretty sure nothing could be done. Well, we learned our lesson NEVER to look away from your stuff.

We went upstairs unpacked, showered, etc. We had booked a superior room for ourselves and a regular room for the kids. We booked the superior because on Trip Advisor many people loved the hotel but said the rooms were a bit small, so we decided to book one superior room. Our room was larger with a couch and our bathroom was a bit bigger than the kid's bathroom as well. It was nice to have the extra space as the kids would often come into our room as we were getting ready, but I wouldn't hesitate to get a regular room either.

By this time it was about 3:30pm and we were starving. I had decided our first meal would be at Cerverseria Catalana (Calle Mallorca, 236) in the L'Eixample. Nikki had said in her trip report they ate there twice so seemed like a good recommendation. She did not steer us wrong!! It was a tapas bar and everything we had was excellent, but we didn't want to eat too much as we were still hoping to eat dinner, so we made note that we would definitely want to return there. This restaurant does not close down for the midday but remains open, so I good spot to go whenever you are hungry.

We walked over to Le Pedrera and waited in about a 20 minute line. Entry fees were 8 euro for DH and I, 4.50 for DD and free for DS (anyone under 12). It was incredible. It is always great to see something you have read so much about and seen so many pictures of. The small museum on the top floor was also quite interesting with some of his furniture as well as objects from nature that inspired him. The terrace, of course, is a must see and quite amazing. There was that exciting moment when I saw the Sagrada Familia right through one of the arches. He truly thought through every detail.

We had originally planned on eating someplace that didn't open until 8:30, but at about 7:30 we were fading fast and thought we better eat before then. So, I checked my list of restaurants and we decided on La Tramoia Rambla Catalyuna, 15 in the L'Eixample and near our hotel. It was good, but we all agreed not as good as our lunch place. However, DD had an excellent dessert of semi-freddo ice cream and catalan cream. We headed back to the hotel and crashed!!

I am sooo glad you had a great time and Loved Morocco! Isn;t it awesome? Great first day report and pix, am psyched to follow along and the Barcelons report will get me pumped up for the big move. Welcome back.

I am hoping you post back about the Morocco portion of your trip - the good, the bad, and what your kids preferred. My husband has thus far filed Morocco into the "not a chance in hell" category. However, he too is looking for somewhere warmer in March to go to. Maybe your trip report will convince him. Please continue!

Ha! Ha! Don't you wish you had a few extra days of vacation just to complete your Fodor's trip report!! It is of course, the funnest part of returning home.

Okay, here goes, next installment:

Sunday, March 18

We got up and had breakfast in the hotel. Definitely one of the nicest breakfast rooms we have ever been in. Large, tons of light and windows and nicely decorated. The food was very good with a nice selection of scrambled eggs, frittata, bacon, sausage, potatoes, cereal, museli, fruit, cheese and a nice selection of pastries. Our breakfast was included in our room rate which is a good deal as it is 15 euro pp.

Our first stop today was to the art market at Place di Pi near the Cathedral in the Barri Gothic on Sat. and Sundays. I love buying art from the places I visit. It wasn’t really that large of a market but there was one particular artist who had the whimsical, colorful style that I love. We all agreed our favorite one was a painting she had done of Casa Batllo and bought that one. There was also a nice food market nearby with cheese, nuts, etc.

We walked over to the Cathedral, and could already tell how much we liked the Barri Gothic. We explored the side gardens of the church and went inside. There was a Mass going on so we couldn’t go to the front of the church but we enjoyed it.

It was Sunday, so most of the stores were closed so we decided to walk to the El Born and go to the Picasso Museum. We had to wait about 15-20 minutes in the line. It was very well done and interesting museum, even if many of his more famous pieces are not displayed here. It was very interesting to see his early work and learn about his life and the progression of his art. Definitely, the most interesting exhibit was the “Las Mananitos” exhibit, as he did his own interpretation of this famous painting. Watch the video before entering this exhibit as it will help you understand it better. Even the kids enjoyed this portion of the Picasso Museum.

After this we were hungry and headed back to Teller de Tapas, near the art market we had been to earlier that day, recommended in Maribel’s guide. It was very good tapas (but Cerverseria Catalana was still #1).

We had decided that this trip we were going to make it a priority to see a Football game. Unfortunately, FC Baracelona was not playing while we were there, but there was an Espanyol game at the Olympic stadium. The game was at 5:00pm. We returned to the hotel to freshen up and then took a taxi to the Olympic stadium. It was nice to be up in that area and see all the Olympic buildings and monuments. It was fun to finally see a European game in person. The fans are really crazy and while the stadium wasn’t full we happened to get seats right near the major fan club. They are wild and had three guards stationed down at the bottom just to watch them. A few heated moments on the field made it exciting, but in the end it was a 1-1 tie.

We were not exactly sure how to get back to our hotel as the taxis could not come up as far as the stadium and we hadn’t really checked out the metro or buses yet. We just started following the crowds who led us down near the art museum and the Magic Fountains to Placa Espanyol. From there it was easy to get a taxi.

For dinner that night we had chosen La Rita on Carrer Arago, 279 just off Passieg de Gracia. They do not take reservations and open at 8:30pm. We arrived about 8:15pm and there was already a small line. As we were waiting outside DS asked if this was an Asian restaurant as the entire wait staff inside appeared to be Filipino, which makes sense since the Philippines was a territory of Spain for hundreds of years. Interesting how colonialism affected so many countries of the world, particularly the French influence we saw in Morocco. DD wasn’t too interested in the geopolitical lecture that could have come from this observation –he just loves Asian food, and I think he was hoping we were at a Asian restaurant. We were seated shortly. At first we weren’t too impressed with the menu, but once we ordered and the food started to come we realized what a fantastic restaurant it was and very inexpensive as well. DS had the fried calamari to start with. It had a wonderful spiced breading. Turned out to be the best fried calamari on the trip (and we ought to know since he ordered some at almost every restaurant!!). He also had a very nice hamburger, although it didn’t come with a bun. DD and I started out with a large plate of beef carpaccio and parmesan. I had a very large and nice duck breast. DH and DD each had the steak with peppercorns. We all had wonderful desserts as well. Our bill came to 84 euros which also included sparkling water, 1/2 bottle of wine, cappuccino and two cups of tea.

Link to pictures - open Barcelona Day twounday, March 18

We got up and had breakfast in the hotel. Definitely one of the nicest breakfast rooms we have ever been in. Large, tons of light and windows and nicely decorated. The food was very good with a nice selection of scrambled eggs, frittata, bacon, sausage, potatoes, cereal, museli, fruit, cheese and a nice selection of pastries. Our breakfast was included in our room rate which is a good deal as it is 15 euro pp.

Our first stop today was to the art market at Place di Pi near the Cathedral in the Barri Gothic on Sat. and Sundays. I love buying art from the places I visit. It wasn’t really that large of a market but there was one particular artist who had the whimsical, colorful style that I love. We all agreed our favorite one was a painting she had done of Casa Batllo and bought that one. There was also a nice food market nearby with cheese, nuts, etc.

We walked over to the Cathedral, and could already tell how much we liked the Barri Gothic. We explored the side gardens of the church and went inside. There was a Mass going on so we couldn’t go to the front of the church but we enjoyed it.

It was Sunday, so most of the stores were closed so we decided to walk to the El Born and go to the Picasso Museum. We had to wait about 15-20 minutes in the line. It was very well done and interesting museum, even if many of his more famous pieces are not displayed here. It was very interesting to see his early work and learn about his life and the progression of his art. Definitely, the most interesting exhibit was the “Las Mananitos” exhibit, as he did his own interpretation of this famous painting. Watch the video before entering this exhibit as it will help you understand it better. Even the kids enjoyed this portion of the Picasso Museum.

After this we were hungry and headed back to Teller de Tapas, near the art market we had been to earlier that day, recommended in Maribel’s guide. It was very good tapas (but Cerverseria Catalana was still #1).

We had decided that this trip we were going to make it a priority to see a Football game. Unfortunately, FC Baracelona was not playing while we were there, but there was an Espanyol game at the Olympic stadium. The game was at 5:00pm. We returned to the hotel to freshen up and then took a taxi to the Olympic stadium. It was nice to be up in that area and see all the Olympic buildings and monuments. It was fun to finally see a European game in person. The fans are really crazy and while the stadium wasn’t full we happened to get seats right near the major fan club. They are wild and had three guards stationed down at the bottom just to watch them. A few heated moments on the field made it exciting, but in the end it was a 1-1 tie.

We were not exactly sure how to get back to our hotel as the taxis could not come up as far as the stadium and we hadn’t really checked out the metro or buses yet. We just started following the crowds who led us down near the art museum and the Magic Fountains to Placa Espanyol. From there it was easy to get a taxi.

For dinner that night we had chosen La Rita on Carrer Arago, 279 just off Passieg de Gracia. They do not take reservations and open at 8:30pm. We arrived about 8:15pm and there was already a small line. As we were waiting outside DS asked if this was an Asian restaurant as the entire wait staff inside appeared to be Filipino, which makes sense since the Philippines was a territory of Spain for hundreds of years. Interesting how colonialism affected so many countries of the world, particularly the French influence we saw in Morocco. DD wasn’t too interested in the geopolitical lecture that could have come from this observation –he just loves Asian food, and I think he was hoping we were at a Asian restaurant. We were seated shortly. At first we weren’t too impressed with the menu, but once we ordered and the food started to come we realized what a fantastic restaurant it was and very inexpensive as well. DS had the fried calamari to start with. It had a wonderful spiced breading. Turned out to be the best fried calamari on the trip (and we ought to know since he ordered some at almost every restaurant!!). He also had a very nice hamburger, although it didn’t come with a bun. DD and I started out with a large plate of beef carpaccio and parmesan. I had a very large and nice duck breast. DH and DD each had the steak with peppercorns. We all had wonderful desserts as well. Our bill came to 84 euros which also included sparkling water, 1/2 bottle of wine, cappuccino and two cups of tea.

After reading Missypies Barcelona report, I had to run to Barns & Noble to look up Barcelona in the travel books. It looked great, now reading your report and seeing the pictures it still looks great. I'm impressed. Do you speak Spanish? or now I hear Catalyn? (I am learning so much on this site). Barcelona was a place I had never thought of, let alone Morroco. Can't wait for more.

We're following in your tracks, and missypie's, in taking our 11yo son with us to Barcelona in mid-May, so I'm eagerly awaiting more (except we're heading to SW France after Barcelona). Thanks for all the advice so far!

I also have a blackberry, and can access fodor's the same way you can - I can read, but not write.

happytotravel - No we don't speak spanish or catalan. Every time we travel someplace I get the 10 CD collection by Pimsleur. It won't help me carry on a full conversation but it does the job to be polite, know how to ask where something is, etc. It helped on this trip when we told the cab driver where we wanted to go, and I knew he was saying "I don't understand". We found a lot of people in Barcelona did speak atleast some English.

Day 3 – Monday March 19

We started off the day taking a taxi to Sagrada Familia. We got there at 10:30am and there was basically no line. We also got the audioguides which were quite good, although the kids stopped listening about 1/2 way through. It was a bit difficult to figure out where you were supposed to be standing when listening to the guide. The building is incredible and going inside is a MUST!!! Don’t listen to people who say it is just a construction site. It is, but there is so much to see! Artisans, craftsmen and builders at work, plaster models, plaster parts, incredible columns.

When we left I told DH that some people don’t think it is worth going inside and his exact words were “Are they flipping out of their mind?” He went on to say that this is probably the last great cathedral to ever be built and “Wouldn’t you have wanted to see them building Notre Dame?” Personally, I think it is amazing that they actually let people in. I think it would be a major distraction. Unfortunately, the elevators weren’t working so we were unable to go up any of the towers.

This was our day to see some far flung things. So next we took a taxi to Camp Nou for the tour and museum. For some reason I thought the tour was guided, but it is not. At first I was disappointed at this, but it still turned out to be quite interesting. Amazingly enough, people kept assuming we were Spanish or Italian, and here the guy asked if we spoke Spanish or Italian, when I said no “English” he asked if we were from the UK!! Okay, so we thought that was kind of cool….

The locker rooms are quite simple – nothing compared to an NBA or NFL locker room I’m guessing. The stadium is quite spectacular. We were able to go out and sit on many levels and despite the height you always had a good view. The football museum had a lot of historical items, but the most interesting was the photography exhibit. Excellent pictures of athletes and of people playing soccer around the world.

DS did some shopping at the FC Barcelona store, getting a Ronaldhino jersey and an FC Barcelona ball.

Next we took a taxi to the Barri Gothic. We had chosen to eat lunch at El Pintor (Sant Honorat, 7) in the Barri Gothic due to a Fodor recommendation. We had an excellent lunch although a bit expensive. However, the food was wonderful. DD and I shared beans catalana for a starter and then I had artichokes with shrimp and clams, DH had paella and DD had Fiduea which she enjoyed. DS ordered the salmon dish with apples (recommended by the Fodorite) and he is still talking about how much he loved that salmon!! The restaurant was mostly filled with local businesspeople enjoying their 2 hour lunches.

It had apparently rained a bit while we were eating, but had stopped now (Yea!). We decided to do some shopping in the Barri Gothic and our first stop was at Custo. This is a local Barcelona designer whose signataure items are tops with bright colors, intricate designs and details. It is not super cheap, but not too expensive for buying a fun top!!

Our next stop was La Manual Alpargatera, the famous espadrille store. I was expecting it to be much larger. It was actually a bit small, but the older lady who helped us was extremely patient and helpful. It really doesn’t take that much room to store a ton of espadrilles as they lay flat together (easy for packing home too!) DD got a pair of bright pink classic espadrilles for 7 euros, I got some light blue ones with a slight wedge heel and embroidery on the top for 15 Euros. We continued exploring and shopping throughout the Barri Gothic enjoying the narrow windy streets.

We went back to the hotel to rest up a bit. Our original plan was to go to Girona on a daytrip the next day by train. However, the thought of getting up early to catch an early morning train did not appeal to any of us. We had fallen into the Spanish routine of eating late and staying up way past our bedtime. Also, we were truly enjoying Barcelona and thought it would be a good idea to not rush things and just stay in Barcelona. We had already determined that a return trip to Spain would be in order.

We weren’t really hungry for a big dinner due to our big lunch, but decided we needed to eat something, so about 9:15pm we walked to Txapela (Passeig de Gracia, 8-10) in L’Eixample. It is a loud and very busy tapas bar. We waited about 15 minutes for a table. Your placemat is basically your menu with pictures of the tapas, very similar to a placemat in a sushi bar. The tapas servings are very small but also very inexpensive. A good meal for not a lot of money. The desserts were also very small but delicious and the perfect size for me.

artlover - just in case you leave before I get to this part. We also found another tapas bar owned by the same people as Cerveseria Catalana that was just as good and a little closer to our hotel. It was called Ciudad Condal at Rambla de Catalyuna, 18 cross street Gran Via.

I thought of that, but it also happened at Casa Batllo and at La Rita they first handed us the menu in French until we told them we actually needed English. Similar things happened in Morocco, but that made sense as they really don't have many American tourists there - although they were always excited to find out we were Americans. Just fun to think about!!

We started out the morning in the breakfast room again. Then we walked to the Boqueria Market. WOW! This place was incredible and puts the Campo dei Fiori in Rome to shame, We loved walking through there and seeing all the meats, cheeses, nuts, fish, eggs, vegetables and on and on. I would love to be able to grocery shop this way.

Next we decided to go to Castle Montjuic. We had already been to the other part of Montjuic near the Olympic stadium, the day we went to the football game, today our plan was to go to the Castle. We took the metro and then the Montjuic Funicular. From there we had planned to take the tram to go up to the castle, but when we got there the tram was closed for renovations- it looked like it could be closed for awhile. It was a nice day so we decided to walk up there. Suffice it to say, the signage to walk was very confusing. We ended up getting a bit lost, and there were not many people there. A man drove up, parked, and got out with his camera and two dogs. We asked him which way to get up to the castle. After a few minutes of hand signals, he offered to drive us up there. So we got in the small car with the two dogs. Unfortunately the entrance from this side was closed so he said he would take us another way. He dropped us off at a location with stunning views of the Mediterranean and the port. He was a painter who went up there to take pictures of the sky. From there we had to walk around the castle walls. It was a bit of a walk and by the time we got there we were pooped! There is a military museum up there, but we didn’t go in. We walked back down the correct way, but it was still a bit of a walk.

My recommendation- if the tram isn’t working don’t bother to go up to the castle. Even the tour buses had to walk up a ways due to all the construction going on. All in all, our least favorite thing we did, although we did have the unique experience of meeting the painter, which was fun.

We took the funicular and the metro back. We were all hungry and agreed, going back to Cerversaria Catalan was what we needed for lunch. We got there about 2:20 pm and had to wait about 50 minutes for a table- but we all agreed it would be worth it. We waited inside by the bar and were mesmerized for the next 50 minutes by what could only be described as “ordered chaos” as they served the food out of the bars. We finally got seated and had another wonderful meal there. In our opinion the best tapas we had in Barcelona.

DH headed back to the hotel to rest while Lauren, Michael and I did some shopping down the Passeig de Gracia.

Since DH was back at the hotel resting we put him in charge of dinner plans. We got back about 7:45 pm- I was looking for dinner about 9:00 so I would have a chance to rest a bit, but we had an 8:30 reservation.

Leaving dinner up to DH meant we would be eating someplace special and we did- Comerc24 located in the El Born. It is a very high end, hip tapas bar run by a chef, Carlos Abellan that used to be at El Bulli. It was kind of fun, as when we returned home there was an article in the current Travel & Leisure about his newest restaurant Tapac24

We couldn’t get a reservation at a table, but they also took reservations at the bar, so the four of us sat at the bar. We ordered The Festival tapas menu. It was 7 courses including dessert with multiple tastes in each course. Before they served us he asked if we were allergic to any thing or didn’t like certain tastes. DS is allergic to clams and mussels but we said everything else was fair game. Our first course was 4 tastes many of them Asian. One of them included wasabi ice cream and another seaweed- two tastes I don’t care for- but who would’ve though I should list those in a Spanish restuarant? No problem anyway- DS ate my seaweed dish. The fish course was excellent particularly the bacala. The dessert came with an apple celery smoothie (declared the kids favorite taste), passion fruit yogurt dish with fried coconut, pralines -sublime and a small plate with 4 desserts.

Everything was excellent, and the service spot on. I would highly recommend this place if looking for a higher end tapas experience. As we were getting into the taxi we had the privilege of meeting the chef.

Judging by the fact that you and I took pictures of the same people selling the same produce at the Boqueria market, I am thinking these folks end up in a lot of family albums. I think we even took pictures of the same shrimp; I know we took the same peppers.

We also passed up a planned daytrip to Girona so we could stay in Barcelona. Looks like we'll all just have to go back.

Thanks for the support all! Funny about the favorite food stalls in Boqueria!!

Day 5 – Wed. 3/21/07

We decided to first stop at Palau de la Musica Catalyuna and see if we could get tickets for later today or tomorrow. Unfortunately, all the English tours were already out for today and tomorrow. We considered getting tickets for a tour in Spanish for the next day just so we could see inside, but decided against it. Top on our list for the next trip! Feeling sad we missed out on seeing this DD and I popped in to Zara for a little retail therapy!

Next we took the bus to Parc Guell. First, I just want to say, I have never ever seen so many tour buses in one place – and this was a tiny windy street. The bus dropped us off at a side entrance, so at first as we were walking around we weren’t seeing as much, but soon we found the main entrance with all the incredible Gaudi buildings! We enjoyed exploring there and agree with missypie’s statement that it looks like Quenn Frostine’s castle from Candyland.

From there we took a taxi down to Barcelonetta. We decided to go to a restaurant there in Maribel’s guide called Can Sole. This is an old restaurant established in 1903. Mostly local business people eating lunch there with older men as the waiters. When we were given the menus our eyes popped! It was very expensive- particularly for lunch! We almost thought about leaving, but didn’t want to head out into the main street where the waiter’s call you to eat in their restaurant. DH said let’s just order the paella and not worry.

Since DS can’t have clams and mussels and they didn’t speak English here so we weren’t sure how to ask for that- I really wanted clams and mussels in the paella anyway so DS just ordered calamari fritti. The menu showed that depending on what you had in the paella it was 30E and you needed a minimum of 2 people. We just ordered the paella for 3, not specifying what should be in it. I was worried it would be very expensive and we just may end up with rice! The paella came with mussels, clams and large prawns. It was very good! Then the bill, the paella for the 3 of us was only 44E’s. Yea! I guess the price of 30E was for 2 people, so it was about 15E’s per person.

From there we walked through the neighborhood and along the water. However it was a bit cold and windy out, so we got a taxi and had him take us to Casa Batllo. Since we bought the painting of Casa Batllo and had really enjoyed the other Gaudi buildings we decided we wanted to see this as well. Boy, were we glad we did. We all loved this place!! It is a bit expensive (16E/person, 13E/student). This comes with the audio guide which is excellent! As much as we liked La Pedrera, Casa Batllo is even more amazing. The inner courtyard, the main room facing Passeig de Gracia to see and be seen, the outer courtyard, and it has an amazing roof top as well. I think this is a must see for anyone in Barcelona, particularly those who are really enjoying the Gaudi architecture. There is also generally no line.

From there the boys went back to rest at the hotel and DD and I slowly walked back and shopped on Las Ramblas Catalyuna.

For dinner tonight we had an 8:30 pm reservation at Cinc Sentits that I had made via e-mail a few weeks before. We walked there from our hotel. We had decided we would all do the tasting menu. It started out with this drink with maple syrup, crème, cava and salt. You were to drink it all in one shot. I was a bit suspect at first, but it was awesome- although seemed. As we had sat down we saw a waiter come in with an ice chest, she said those would be ours for dinner. They had been swimming near Costa Brava just a few hours earlier. They were simply prepared and oh so delicious. The servers were so kind and hospitable! It was a wonderful way to end our last full day in Barcelona.

Don't you just love Zara, such cute stuff plus the prices in Spain are so much better than here even with the exchange rate. Love the pictures of Parc Guell. I remember the first time I was there it was just when I started out as a mosaic artist and I literally cried from the mosaics there. I remember laying on the ground under the medallions and just staring up at them thinking WOW this is what mosaic is about. Barcelona was a huge influence on me and soon I;ll be living there. Again great report, really interested in the Morocco part and Barcelona is a bonus.

laartista - I can see why you would want to live in Barcelona. I loved it and an easy city to get around in. I definitely thought of you when we were in Fez at this pottery factory - they chip each mosaic tile by hand - fascinating!! Well, I am getting ahead of myself - almost to Morocco on the trip report, but it takes more time with the downloading of pictures!

Thanks for the report so far; I'm looking forward to Morocco - no plans to go there, yet, but maybe after reading your report...

Question about Cinq Sentits, which we're planning to go to as well. Do you remember whether the entire table must order the tasting menu? If it's like the U.S., then the answer is yes, but one member of our group (DH)doesn't think he wants to do a tasting menu - he wants to choose!

kraav - yes, we are very lucky that the kids are willing to try most anything. Actually, after doing her own research my daughter was dying to have "foam" which we got on a dish at Comerc24

Lexma - yes, they do require that everyone at the table have the tasting menu and they also request that you order it when you make your reservation, because some of the dishes may require 24 hours - in our case the delicious roasted pig. I hope this person decideds to go with the tasting menu, this way you get the fish, meat and fowl rather than only getting one!!

When we went to Cinc Sentits in February, I asked whether we had to order the tasting menu in advance, and I was told that since our reservation was on a weeknight we could decide when we got there. On a weekend night they would be too busy to do it without preparation.

All the items on the tasting menu were also available on the regular dinner menu.

We slept in a bit, DD and DH woke up not feeling 100%. By the time we were done with breakfast, getting ready and packing it was 12:30. We decided to go to the Textile Museum just across from the Picasso Museum in El Born. I had been reading Missypie’s trip report on my Blackberry and they had gone there and really enjoyed it (not sure how I missed it in all my research). It really was excellent. If you have any interest in fabrics or fashion I would suggest you go. It is not expensive, we pretty much had the museum to ourselves, and it only takes about 45 min. or so to go through.

From there we walked to Cal Pep for lunch. It was about 2:30 and there was not a very long line. However, with four of us, they ended up seating us in the backroom. Actually it was a cool room, and with 4 of us, I prefer to sit at a table. The food was excellent- right up there with Cerveseria Catalan- although the fried calamari was much better at Cal Pep.

From there we walked to Granja Xocolateria for hot chocolate and churros. Now why did we wait until the last day to come here? Well, maybe that was a good thing! The owner was extremely helpful, though spoke limited English. The churros were not those big thick ones we get at home (which I never eat) but thin crispy, floaty things- excellent!

DH was feeling a bit punk, unfortunately we had no hotel room for him to stay in, but we went back to the hotel and rested on the lobby couches, DD and I went to Sfera- why didn’t we go there before we had packed all our stuff. I would say similar styles and pricing to Zara.

Then I remembered that I needed a tube to carry my silk painting on the plane. I went into one store that I thought might have one. They didn’t but she did tell me where I could find one. No address, just directions. We went back to the hotel, I got the painting so I would be sure and get the right size tube. DS came with me and amazingly we found it. Luckily I had DS with me, as I got turned around trying to find our way back, but of course he knew the way.

We decided to take a taxi to the airport, it was 16E for the ride and an extra 10E for the bags. Considering the Aerobus is about 12E for us, we thought it was worth it not to deal with at night. Everytime we were by the Aerobus stop on Placa Catalyuna there was a line.

We got to the aiport about 7:30 pm for our 9:50 pm flight. The check in counter didn’t open for another 20 min. We were flying Royal Air Maroc from Barcelona directly to Marrakech, although it appeared to be operated by Iberia. The guy at the checkout counter was pretty rude, but everyone else was nice and we had no problems with the flight, although it was late leaving. We were supposed to arrive in Marrakech at 11:15 pm, but I believe it was almost midnight. Then we had to go through passport control, which took quite awhile, as apparently several flights came in at once. When we came out our luggage was all there and our riad driver was waiting for us.

Now, I had know idea what to expect at the airport so I had double checked to make sure our driver would be there to pick us up. However, even about 12:30am there were tons of petit taxis lined up right outside the airport.

The first thing I noticed when we walked outside was the spicy smell in the air. The airport was a lot bigger and nicer than I was expecting. Our riad was in the Old Medina, just a 10-15 min. drive. By the time we arrived it was after 1:00 am. Our driver had to stop down our street. We walked to the riad about 1/2 a curvy block.

Our driver rang the doorbell and we were welcomed into our beautiful riad, Riad Kniza, by Abdul. Despite the late hour he gave a brief tour of the riad and then showed us our room. It was the Ambar Suite. It had a living room and bathroom downstairs and a bedroom and bathroom upstairs. The living room was turned into a bedroom for the kids with 2 beds in it. Everything was beautiful and exquisitely restored. The service was impeccable, but also friendly and sweet. Nothing was ever too much trouble. The night we arrived Abdul brought us mint tea and some pastries. The pastries were delicious and Michael DS his new Moroccan passion- mint tea!

We finally dropped in bed about 2 am (3am Barcelona time), after telling Abdul we probably wouldn’t be eating breakfast until 10 am. When our driver parked to empty the bags and we walked to the riad, DS had said to DH, “I think our riad is in the sketchiest neighborhood in Marrakech.” I didn’t want to tell him then, that all of the Old Medina was the same- but the next day our neighborhood would look a bit different.

We woke up the next day to a beautiful blue sky and a nice warm day – just what we came here for! We had a great breakfast with crepes, jam, yogurt and other breakfast pastries. We ate up on the beautiful roof terrace and got our first glimpse of the rooftops of Marakkech – which included a lot of satellite dishes!!

Our room at the riad included a 1/2 day guide, so I spoke with Samira at the front desk. She said he would be coming at 2:30 since much in the old medina would be closed from 12:00-2:30 and it was now about 11am. We weren’t quite ready to tackle the old medina on our own so we decided to visit the Marjorelle Gardens in the new city. Our riad was near the Bab Doukkala gate so not too far to walk out of the medina. We did, of course, immediately notice the change in our neighborhood from last night. Now it was packed with the shops open selling spices, meat, vegetable, etc. and people and donkeys everywhere!!

We walked to the gardens and even had a few people give us directions without asking for money (although that wouldn’t be the case later in the day). Even being in the new city (Gueliz) we could tell we were in a different place. We made it to the gardens and really enjoyed them, they were beautiful and very peaceful. I loved the marjorelle blue. Even the kids liked the brightly painted buildings and the tranquility. We also went through a small museum there that displayed Islamic Art. It had some beautiful and interesting pieces, I would recommend paying the small fee to go through.

From there we picked up a taxi. We knew we needed to eat lunch before we met our guide at 2:30, but had no idea where to go. We asked the taxi driver to take us to someplace good in Gueliz. He dropped us off in front of a shop that looked more like a butcher shop than a restaurant and DH kept saying “Right here?? Right here??” As we got out of the taxi the young men working in the restaurant ran to set up our table. They were really quite gracious. We asked for a menu and they said “No menu” and just pointed to the butcher case. Okay, we can do this. We pointed to some lamb chops, ground lamb, chicken and beef. Using my limited French I explained a little bit for everyone to share.. Then I explained “no brains” pointing to my head and “no heart” pointing to my heart. He also asked “pomme frites?” and we said yes. I don’t know exactly what they do to grill the meat or what spices they used, but we had a wonderful bowl of perfectly spiced, grilled meats!!! We discovered there that in the small cafes they tend to use strips of butcher paper as napkins.

As we were eating, two French women came in. They apparently wanted some wine. The waiter ran across the street somewhere, came back with a bottle of wine in a brown paper bag. He showed it to them, then went back and covered it in aluminum foil and had them keep it down on the ground when they weren’t pouring it.

We decided to walk back to the riad in time for our 2:30 meeting with the guide, but we were a bit further away than the gardens. We got a bit lost and started looking at the map. A very nice man came and asked if we needed help, DH just asked which direction the main street was, but he wanted to walk us back to where we could see the walls of the medina. He was really very sweet, would explain things to us and kept talking about his friend in “Chi-ca-go”. Of course when we were done he asked for money. DH gave him some – but then he asked for more – told us we were Americans and knew we could give more!! DH gave him just a bit more and then we just said that was enough. We learned our lesson that day.

Back at the riad we met our guide Latif. He was about our age, a very sweet, soft spoken man. He had a computer sicience degree but not many jobs for that in Marakkech, mostly Casablanca. He had grown up in the old medina and did not want to move away, although he had traveled to Spain and France for his studies. He took us out into our first foray of the old medina.

Latif took us through the souks and the markets – what a labyrinth. What incredible things to see, smell and hear. There was just so much to look at as everything was new to us. We wanted to take more pictures of people working in the souks, etc. but they would always ask for money and Latif also explained that many Muslims think when you take their picture it takes away a bit of their soul. It was fascinating seeing these men work in these tiny little stalls, sewing leather, cutting tin, making shoes, whatever. Sometimes there were young kids working as well – DH desctribed that as a bit Dickensonian.

Latif never encouraged us to buy anything, but when DH asked about rugs he took us to a rug shop behind a very large door. Now our home is all hardwood floors and we have several oriental rugs, but almost all of them belong to my mother-in-law so we were game for buying a rug or two. We went into the rug shop, were served mint tea and given the whole show. There were actually several rugs we liked. We narrowed it down to two, actually one is more of a throw – not meant to be walked on. DH started “Berber bargaining” with the owner. At one point he referred to DH as an Armenian (meaning he was really cheap). We got the two rugs and had them ship them (although they really wanted us to carry them home). They had me sign the back of the rugs so I would know I was sent the rugs I wanted. They actually came earlier this week!!

The kids loved the whole “Berber bargaining” process. They were quite surprised we actually bought some rugs, but thought the negotiations were very fun to watch.

From there we went out into the Djemma El-Fna and walked around a bit. DH and the kids had some orange juice from a vendor. It was delicious, however, they serve it in a glass rather than a paper cup, and after seeing the method of washing, he decided he wasn’t sure he would do that again. They just dip it from one water bucket to another.

Latif took us to a café with a large upstairs balcony that is clearly used for tourists to look down on the square, he said to relax, explore a bit and he would be back in an hour and would meet us downstairs. We had some water and relaxed a bit and took some pictures. Then we headed back into the square to explore a bit on our own. The food stalls, snake charmers, storytellers, boxers, etc., etc. – what show!! There were plenty of locals watching things as well, but they would walk straight up to the foreigners with their hat in hand. It didn’t bother me so much, but DH was definitely annoyed by it.

We met back up with Latif and he asked if we would like to take a caleche (horse carriage) ride back to the riad. We said yes, so he found a driver he knew, an old man who had grown up o the same street with his mother. He requested that DS be able to sit up with the driver, which he loved! We thoroughly enjoyed our ride home as the sun was beginning to set.

That night we had already planned to eat dinner in the riad. We had a wonderful table set in one of the rooms off the courtyard. We started off with a delicious Moroccan soup, then they served us Moroccan salads. They served us about 8-9 different small plates, basically different vegetable antipasti, beans, olives, eggplant with tomatoes, and on and on. We each had a tangine, either lamb, chicken or fish. Everything was very good, and it ended with orange slices sprinkled with cinnamon for dessert.

Incredible report! What an experience that must have been. I especially love all the details, expressing what you wanted (or not) for lunch, the observation of the French women and the wine. Keep going!

Oh, looks like you guys were having a fab time. So much fun to see anothers pictures, I wanna go back! What a great experience for your kids, can't imagine what it must be like thru their eyes being young. Love the rugs.

Thanks for all your comments. I do love travelling with our kids at this age. People tend to respond to you differnetly - mostly I think they are more interested in talking to you. Plus our kids are good travellers and adventurous eaters. Not to say there aren't some moments....

However, I just think travelling goes hand in hand with their education. Whether they see something and then learn about it, or have studies something and then get to see it, either way each experience is more enriched.

Even this weekend we rented "Oceans 12". When they mentioned that the famous theif had stolen the King of Morocco's yacht - the kids both said "Wow, the King of Morocco", and I'm sure they were brought back to their moments of seeing one of his palaces and all the things we heard about him.

Day 8 – Saturday March 23

I plan all the trips but make DH do all the navigation on the ground, as I have a very poor sense of direction. So, before we left Latif the previous evening, I asked DH if he wanted Latif again tomorrow – and he quickly said yes. So, we planned for Latif to meet us at the riad at 10:00am.

We started out with Latif seeing some sites- the Saadian tombs and Badi Palace. Then he also walked us through the Kasbah and the mellah (the Old Jewish Quarter). The mellah was our favorite area. It just seemed more real and less touristy than the souks in the medina. The interesting thing about the mellah is that while the Muslims will build their buildings with very few windows open to the outside, they prefer their windows and balconies open to the interior courtyard – thus a riad, on the other hand, the Jews build many windows and balconies on the exterior of the buildings, which we liked.

I was so glad that we had decided to hire Latif for another day. I think if your main goal is to shop in the souks, you could probably find your way on your own. However, trying to cover a lot of ground, see different neighborhoods and sites in a day, having a guide is extremely helpful. I was so glad that all we had to do was to simply follow him, rather than always trying to figure out where to go. We were really able to just walk and enjoy what we were hearing and seeing. In addition, we were always able to ask questions and get tons of information.

I had read about the mellah in the Lonely Planet guide and really wanted to go, but the book said it was in the “seediest” part of town, so I am not sure we would not have ventured there on our own. By the way, it didn’t appear to us to be anymore or less seedy than any other neighborhood, but perhaps we just didn’t notice, or things may change a bit at night. There was a small synagogue we were able to step into which was an incredible flash of blue and white stripes – quite a change from the earth tones seen on the exterior of the buildings.

We ended up at Djemma El-Fna and Latif picked a restaurant for us on the square (not a food stall). We all had brochette and I also ordered Moroccan salad which was chopped tomatoes, onions and yummy spices. It was delicious. Our lunch for all five of us (including Latif) and drinks was only 190dh about $22.

Before lunch, Latif had taken us to a very nice store with beautiful things. There was a beautiful silver menorah I was eyeing, but when I asked the price it was more than I was willing to spend even with some aggressive “berber bargaining”.
I told Latif I would like a menorah, but it didn’t need to be silver or that expensive. So, after lunch he took us to another store, behind a big door filled with bowls, platters, jewelry, etc. etc. First he had us walk around the store and pick some of the things we liked. DS wanted a small sword and he had a whole wall filled with swords to choose from – an 11yo boys dream. He picked about 4-5 that he liked then Mounssik laid them out for him to look at them and pick his favorite. He narrowed it down to 2, but couldn’t decide. Even Mounssik said “a man only needs one sword,” so he finally picked just one. So, we gathered our things and he placed them on a low table with four low chairs around it. Let the bargaining begin! Once again the kids loved to see DH in action. We did eliminate one of the ceramic bowls we had picked (that’s the one in the picture – Mounssik said “take our picture with the bowl you didn’t get, that way when you get home and see the picture you will change your mind and you can call me and I will send it.”)

We got the other stuff and before we left we also bought a large vase and a beautiful old purse for DD with brass detailing and coral stones. We asked about having it all shipped, but they really wanted us to carry it – they said they would pack it all in a basket that would be easy to carry. Well, they did pack it all in one of those large carry baskets that people buy in Mexico. They had it all packed neatly and even wove the top with some plastic binding so nothing would fall out. It was pretty heavy and we still wanted to explore more of the souks so they said Latif could call us when we were ready to head back to the riad and someone would meet us a the riad with our stuff. That was very helpful but our basket of “teasures” would later be the bane of our existence with all our many flights to return home!! DH was sweet enough to carry it most of the time – but it was heavy!!

I promised him I would give out his information on the internet so here it is:
His name is Mounssik Abdelfattah. The store is Bazar El Wafa, address is 2, Marche Milouda – Sidi Ishak.

Also, we realized we would have to unpack the nice packing job they did at some point, since they had included DS’s knife, which we didn’t think would make it through security in a carryon.

From there we went back out into the souks. DD and I each got a pair of shoes. We had also asked about buying some mint tea and spices. Latif said not to buy them from many of the vendors we had seen as they are left open all day to the dust, etc. So he took us to a pharmacie where they sold all kinds of medicinal herbs, spices, etc. They took us into a room (I regret not taking any pictures) and there was a guy in there with two women assistants. They put on what only could be described as a well orchestrated show, letting us smell touch and try many different things. We bought some mint tea, some spices for meat (when asked what was in these spices, he said a little bit of everything you see in this store – wow – including the bird feathers???), and some eucalyptus which is meant to clear the sinuses. DD was still having problems with her sinuses that started the day we left Barcelona. When they gave her some to try she said - “wow – that is the first thing to clear up my sinuses”. She carried around here little cloth packet of eucalyptus the rest of the trip. I would strongly suggest if you travel to Morocco to buy some spices. Every time I smell them it brings me back!

After this we had Latif return us to our riad where we went upstairs on the roof and relaxed a bit as the sun started to set.

We had a 7:30 dinner reservation at Al Fassia in Gueliz. Samira had arranged for a driver to pick us up and bring us there and then bring us back home. Al Fassia is run completely by women. The food was very good, particularly the cous cous. After dinner, we went back to our room to start packing for our departure the next day and our desert adventure!

Upon your advice, I came "over here" from T Advisor. Your family sounds like mine, except now we're paying college tuition for our oldest - puts a damper on travels. Anyway, can't wait for the desert update, as I am planning a similar trip (using a lot of your good advice) in mid-June.

I'm still enjoying your report, and thanks for the confirmation on Cinq Sentits. I'll have DH look at the great pictures so many people have posted from the tasting menu; maybe he'll be convinced. And it sounds like the restaurants are accommodating in terms of substituting items that people don't or can't eat.

I know, I know - what was I thinking!! LOL!! Of course I'm on the west coast so I still have some time!! Actually I'm as anxious as you to continue - I love reliving the trip this way!

Day 9 – Sunday March 24

Now, the Marakkech portion of our trip I had planned on our own, however, I used Blue Men of Morocco (www.bluemenofmorocco.com) to help organize the rest of the trip. I was not willing to just wait until we got to Marakkech to find someone to take us to the desert, and at the time of planning I also wanted someone who had a website. I originally chose Blue Men because they had a good website and I liked the fact that Elena, the owner was American, although she now lives in Spain. Her husband was Moroccan (although they are no longer married). I also had the opportunity to talk via e-mail with the mom of another family who used Blue Men of Morocco for their trip last June, and they were very happy with them. Elena was always very prompt in returning all my e-mails and happy to answer all of my questions. I was very happy with the places that she had recommended we stay in and really enjoyed our camelmen as well as our guide in Fez – all things that she planned. We especially loved our driver Zaid. He was great with the kids, knowledgeable, always took us to good food, didn’t mind we always left about 1/2 hour later than he wanted and made good time on the road!! When you spend so many hours in a car with someone it is important to have a good driver!!!

We had planned to meet Zaid, our driver from Blue Men of Morocco, at 10:00am. It was a bit cooler this morning so we ate in the courtyard rather than on the terrace.

Zaid couldn’t park too close to the riad, so they hired a man with a cart to carry all our luggage. Quite a scene! I wasn’t sure what kind of car we would be driving in for the next 5 days, boy were we relieved to see a fairly new Toyota Landcruiser!!

We had about a 4 hr. drive from Marakkech to Oazarzate where we would be staying for the evening. We drove through the High Atlas mountains on a very curvy road. We had beautiful weather, but laartista I kept thinking of your drive there in the fog – I can’t believe you made it!! It was very interesting country with a lot to see. We saw people herding sheep, women carrying large sacks of wheat on their backs, and women and girls doing the laundry in the river.

Zaid stopped for lunch in a little outpost of a town in the High Atlas. This was the first moment where I really felt like “We’re not in Kansas anymore”. Things were a bit dirty, and the toilets a bit grim (I decided I could wait….), but the food was actually very good. We all had excellent brochette (grilled meat) and we all agreed that they had the best mint tea we had had so far.

We did stop and take some pictures of Ait Benhaddou. I had planned on going in, but we were all beat and ready to crash at our new riad. We also passed by the movie studio in Ouzarzate – pretty cool!

We arrived at Petit Riad (www.lepetitriad.com) about 4:00pm. It is a lovely riad with a particularly nice outdoor patio and pool. The owner is French, very nice, but really limited English. Zaid said he would take us to see a bit of Ouzarzate, but t was quite warm, so we all just decided we would like to rest out in the sun. We changed into our bathing suits and relaxed by the pool. Once the sun started to set we moved to the terrace on the roof, but soon it got very windy so we went inside. We had two rooms right across from each other. They were large rooms painted in bright colors with large bathrooms decorated in brightly colored tiles. There was just one French couple staying there as well.

Dinner was at 8:00pm in the riad. By now it was dark and the riad did not have a lot of bright light except for in the bathrooms. We did have our best Moroccan dish here, pastille with chicken. It is a pastry dish with ground chicken inside. The top of the pastry has powdered sugar and cinammon – it was delicious. She also served lamb tangine, and for dessert we had fruit and this pastry that was shaped like a pretzel but not as hard and covered in honey.

The wind howled a bit, and the beds were quite hard (even I thought so) but we really enjoyed our stay at Petit Riad and would highly recommend it for a stay in Ouazarzate.

LOL- Sorry for my impatience, it's really fun reading a report from a place I just was. Love the pictures. Me and Robin also had chicken pastille and later found out it's pigeon. ewwww. Just kept thinking of those little guys in Central Park. Quarzazate riad looks really nice. I thought the same thing going thru the Atlas, totally felt exotic to me- cause it was.

laartista - the souks are just a bit different in Fez. Fez is even more of a rabbit warren than Marakkech. We really liked Fez, but unfortunately only spent one full day there. Would definitely want to go back. While Marakkech is flat, Fez is on a hill with more hills around it. Definitely, the surrounding area is more beautiful.

hampfam - next stop Merzouga and our trip to the Erg Chebbi dunes.

I was hoping to get an installment done today, but I am going out tonight with some girlfriends who want to see pictures. I hadn't printed any yet since I have just been posting digital pictures, so I had to get those organized and printed.

Travelgirl, you aren't sure you're "brave" enough for Morocco?! Give me a break! Didn't you just tackle China and Japan without a tourguide?! Now, I can say that WE'RE not brave enough, but I know that YOU are.

I posted a brief question on the Africa board, but this is where the action is!
Ok ladies... I just plain don't want to sleep in a tent in the desert. I know I'll miss all sorts of wonderful things, but I don't do it here and I'm not about to start there!
How feasible is it to see the dunes while staying in a riad/inn in Merzouga?

Awesome trip report jgg. Between you and laartista, I'm going to have to go to Morocco soon. My husband and I loved Barcelona too. One of my close friends just moved back to NYC from Barcelona, he lived there for about 4 years and really enjoyed it.

travelgirl2 - It really was no problem. We never felt nervous or in danger at all while we were there. It was all beforehand!! I think we all have our own comfort zone. I must admit our first trip to Europe was Italy, and I was just nervous about the "unknown". We would love to go visit Israel, and I know people go there everyday and come home safely, but right now I am not "brave" enough to go. What really made me feel better about Morocco was when I started doing my research I was amazed to find out how many Europeans went there for vacation (particularly from the UK and France). It is kind of like their Mexico or Caribbean.

welch- yes, you can see the dunes without spending a night in the desert. The place we stayed Haven La Chance (www.desert-hotel.com) does a 2 hr. sunset or sunrise camel ride where you would ride out in the dunes to watch the sunset and then be back at the auberge with your bed and shower!! I'm sure many of the auberges in Merzouga do the same thing.

Thanks for all the encouraging words, glad you are finding it helpful.

The plan was to leave about 8:00 (it was more like 8:45am when we got on the road) so we had a nice breakfast out on the patio. Mostly bread and jam with oj – typical desert breakfast.

Back in the car and on our way to Merzouga and the dunes!! We stopped at Dades Gorge on the way, which was very pretty. A young boy kept trying to give me a little thing he had folded from a green stalk. I kept telling him “no money” which was true as DH had all the dirhams and he had gone to get some water. He said, “it is a gift from me to you” and stuck it in my hand. I said “thank you” and then he started saying “ now a gift from you to me”. I explained to him that I really didn’t have any money with me. I decided to give him some money when DH returned, but the kid was nowhere in site.

We drove through Erfoud, which is a fairly large city and then stopped in Rissani for lunch at Kasbah Ennasra. It was an auberge and restaurant that had a pretty nice set up. We all had tangine for lunch. DD ordered the tangine kalia that was a specialty of the desert. It was grilled ground meat with eggs, onions and peppers. It was probably at this point that we began to get a bit tired of tangine, so it was nice to have one a bit different.

We drove about another 20-30 minutes to Haven La Chance (www.desert-hotel.com. It is a desert auberge located right at the ege of the dunes. We had originally thought we would spend the night there and then do the next night in the desert, but Zaid thought it was best that we go tonight and spend the next night at the auberge so we could get an earlier start the morning we had the long drive to Fez. We agreed it was a good idea. After our mint tea it was about 4:00 and they said we needed to be on the camel by five in order to get to our camp before it was dark, so we quickly packed our bag with our long underwear and toilet paper and went out to meet our camels and camelmen. They were Assan and his helper (we never did get his name). Assan has been a camelman for 15 years.

We met our camels, I can’t remember mine’s name, but DH’s was Sharif, DD’s was LaLaMerzouga, and DS’s was Jimi Hendrix (not sure if everyone has a camel named Jimi Hendrix or if we all just rode the same camel!!). Getting on the camel was not that hard but holding on as the camel got up from being down was sure fun!!

We started out on our 2 hr. camel trek. Wow! As I said in the beginning of this report, it is truly amazing to realize that you are on a camel riding in the Sahara desert!! We never saw any other camel riders but did see a beautiful sunset. We arrived at our camp about 20 minutes after sunset so it was a bit dark. The night was beautiful, however. There were so many stars in the sky and DD, fresh from a moons unit in Physics explained that the moon was a waning gibbons. There were 3 tents – one we ate dinner in, one we slept in and the middle one was where Assan and his helper ate and prepared our meals. It was almost warm enough to sit outside for dinner, but not quite for me (I am always cold!!)

First, of course, we drank mint tea with Assan and toasted our journey. Then we were served the Moroccan salad with chopped tomatoes and onions that I loved!! Assan served us tangine Kalia that Lauren had earlier that day for lunch. The only problem was when he served it the egg on top didn’t look fully cooked through. (Now I digress, but the internet friend I had talked to about her trip with Blue Men, said the only problem she had is she thinks she ate a bad omelette in the Dades Gorge on their way to Merzouga and the night she was in the desert she got really sick. This being the case we were all particularly aware of not eating undercooked egg). We all kind of looked at each other. Thankfully, Assan said “Would you like me to cook the egg more – some people like it cooked more.” We all nodded our heads eagerly!!! We were also served a bowl of fruit and decided Morocco had the sweetest most delicious bananas we had every tasted. We really had a wonderful time at dinner. Just us, out in the vast desert reminiscing about our previous trips, about what we had experienced so far, and what adventure we thought should be next.

Well, no more putting it off, it was now time for me to attempt going to the bathroom in the desert. Just me and the dune. Did I mention earlier that I am not outdoorsy, don’t do the camping and backpacking things, so at the tender age of 42 this was my first opportunity – I will spare you the details but there was success.

We got ready for bed putting on our long johns and sweats. The tent had rugs down on the ground and we were each given a mattress, a pillow and two of the warmest blankets I had ever slept with. My two biggest concerns about the night in the desert were using the facilities, or lack thereof, and being cold. Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about either one.

We settled down for our sleep. In the middle of the night it got very windy and the flap to our tent would open and the sand would blow in. We slept with our warm blankets covering our faces.

Up next: Sunrise, our ride back and our memorable day visiting the “black village” in Merzouga and having lunch with a local family.

WOW...I love the photos, especially the shadow ones whilst you are on camelback(sp?). You and Laartista have me craving Morocco in a BIG way. Thanks for the great effort you've put into sharing this with us! I really love when people post their photos concurrent with the trip report--it just adds another dimension that enriches it somehow for me.

missypie - Actually I am a Hebrew Christian which means I do send Christmas cards!! I'm sure DH was getting annoyed with me asking to take more pictures on the camel as well as all the "shadow" shots because I was planning on using them for our Christmas card.

mvor - Glad you like the shadow shots. As I said, everytime I saw a good shadow shot I was like "Honey, there's a good one take it!!"

laartista - yes, I agonized over the whole jean thing, but then decided that I would rather wear them on the ride so I could sleep in my sweats, rather than sleep in what I wore on the camel. Not that it would have been that big of a deal. The jeans were a little bit baggy so it really was no problem.

happytotravel - well our next trip is June we will be doing Williamsburg(4 nights)/Washington DC(6 nights)/NYC(6 nights). We can't leave out exploring our own country. But the big question is what to do for next spring break?!! Right now our list or possibilities includes Thailand, China or Costa Rica. laartista- I noticed on the Asia board that you are headed to Thailand this Sept. if we go I will have to pick your brain and CAN'T wait for your trip report. I really want to go to Prague but nobody else wants to go in March so may need to save for June 2008 probably with Germany and Austria. DD takes German so I can finally skip those Piimsleur tapes!!

Assan had asked if we wanted him to wake us up for the sunrise. Of course DH and I said “yes”. So at 6:00am he started clapping his hands to wake us up. The kids would have liked to sleep in a bit more, but they weren’t too keen on staying in the tent alone. Anyway, I explained this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the sunrise in the dunes of the Sahara!!! When we got up we noticed a small dune that wasn’t there the night before – created by the wind. We climbed about 1/2 way up a large dune near our camp (it is hard to walk up a sand dune!) and sat down just in time to catch the last part of the sun rising – incredible.

When we came back down Assan had set out a rug and our breakfast table in the middle of the camp with bread, jam, oranges and tea. Now it was daylight and we could see our camp and enjoy watching our camels as we ate breakfast.

Assan and his helper wrapped up the camp and “locked” the tents by putting stones in front of the flaps. We got back on our camels for the 2 hour trek back. My muscles were a bit sore from the ride the previous day. It helped to try to change position a bit, but DS, being smaller was the only one able to do a full criss-cross applesauce on top of his camel. As we were packing up DD asked what time it was. I said 7:30am. She said “7:30am??!! What time did we wake up??” I had to break the news to her that she had just woken up at 6:00am.”

We left the camp about 7:45 am and arrived back at Haven La Chance at 9:45am. We showered and got situated in our new rooms. Now this was the place that my son had dubbed “the jail” based on some of the room pictures on the internet. They were taken without a lot of light, so do look a bit dark. However, the place was really quite nice. The rooms were actually fairly large with a large bathroom. Nothing fancy, but plenty of space and the people who worked there were very nice. Some of the rooms have communal bathrooms (I took a peek, they were very nice), but they also have several rooms with en suite bathrooms which we had.

Now it was time to see a bit of Merzouga. First, Zaid took us to an area which he described as “the black village.” They also refer to them as the Bedouins. They traveled in caravans from Mali, but are no longer nomads. They live together in a co-op or association, about 200 of them. Zaid showed us the tiny little stone oven one woman uses to bake the bread for the entire village. From there he took us to a room where 5 men sang and danced for us, and had us dance with them as well. They perform Gnawa or Gnaoua music. It was customary for you to buy one of their CD’s after, which we did. The kids particularly enjoyed this.

As I mentioned, Elena, the woman who owns Blue Men of Morocco had married a Moroccan man. His cousin lives in Merzouga, and it was his home that we were headed to for lunch. We did not feel it appropriate to take pictures of them or their home, so I will do my best to describe everything. As much as I felt like Marakkech had taken me back in time, Merzouga really made you feel that way. We entered Ammar’s home, which like all the homes there were made with mud bricks and flat roofs. We walked into Ammar’s home and immediately entered a courtyard with a small fountain, but nothing else. Basically, his home looked very similar to the picture of the room I posted with the Gnaoua musicians. He took us up to the roof to see the whole village. Still very sparse.

Next, we entered the room where the table was set for lunch. There was no furniture in the room (actually we didn’t notice furniture anywhere), just a low wooden table at one end of the room with cushions all along both sides of the room. The only other thing in the room was the tv on a cart, decorated with brightly colored plastic flowers. We were greeted kindly by Ammar’s wife and daughter, but they pretty much kept to themselves. Ammar was the talker of the family. His wife and daughter were watching tv and as we ate lunch other family members would come and go, watching tv, Ammar’s brother’s wife and her daughter and other neighborhood kids.

We were served Moroccan pizza, crust on the bottom, meat in the middle and crust on the top, no plates or utensils. We would each just rip off a piece of the pizza and eat. An 11 year old boys dream!! We were also served a bowl of fruit.

After lunch Ammar took us on a walk of the village, showing us their irrigation system. Basically, each family had a plot of land with mud trenches around it. Each family is allowed water for 2 hours at a time. When it is your turn you break down the little mud stopper by your plot, and fill it in when your turn is done.

Next, Ammar took us to his shop – a rug shop!! A-ha!! Well, let’s see what he has. I must admit it was neat to shop in a village in the desert as opposed to the souks in Marakkech and Fez. More Berber bargaining and we got a toureg rug for the kithcn and a berber nomad rug that I’m hoping will fit in our entry hall. The berber nomad rug was quite interesting as it had some long strands of fringe on the side, these were used by the nomads to fold the carpet and use it as a bag over the camel. Then I asked him if he had any silver jewelry. He said he didn’t have a lot so he only took it out if someone asked for it. His helper brought out a chest and opened it. Inside were about 5 or 6 little cloth bundles. He opened them up and took out some jewelry. I got a bracelet and a necklace.

From there we went back to Haven La Chance. It was about 5:00pm so DD, DH and I rested while DS played soccer with Abraham who worked at the auberge. Dinner was at the auberge. Despite DS’s proclamation of love for mint tea at the beginning of the trip – today was mint tea overload (in the morning with breakfast, when we returned to auberge, with the Gnaoua musicians, at lunch, at the rug shop). DS announced he would not be drinking anymore mint tea!! As, I stated earlier, as delicious as the food was, we were getting a little tired of tangine or brochette and I started to dream of the tapas I would order on our last night in Barcelona (we were flying home from Barcelona so would spend one last night there). After dinner the guys who worked there all played the drums and we joined in as well!

I must say the entire desert experience, camel ride, tents, Merzouga village was definitely the highlight of the trip for us. I still think about it quite a bit. There is a lot of driving to get there and back, but it is worth it. My goal, if I am fit enough is to return to the desert someday with my future grandkids!! As they say in Morocco “insha’Allah” translated – God willing.

We, too, are doing a "Historic US" summer vacation. We went to Costa Rica last spring break...it was the perfect time of year. If you search the Latin America board under "missypie" you should find my trip report from a year ago.

A perfect addition to my morning coffee. When ypu see how others live in the world, doesn't it make you realize how easy westerners have it. I kept thinking that, especially in the desert. Since then I complain less about how much work I have. I mean walking miles to get some grain- Now that's hard work! Let me say again , You guys are the cutest family. The picture of you and the kids on the dune watching the sunrise gave me the goosebumples. We missed the sunrise due to rain- must go back to see it. Great rug- did you buy that one? Yes, Thailand in Sept. Robin has buddy passes we will fly free to Tokyo- Biz class- whoo hoo and we have 3 others coming with so should be fun. I hear the shopping there is off the hook so may have to do a seperate shoppers guide report. LOL I know you'll appreciate that. Seems we BOTH enjoy the sport. Looking forward to the next installment.

What a vacation, that will be hard to top. Incredible, so brave and daring. I am planning a mediterranean cruise with my kids to Turkey and Egypt, I just don't have the courage to try those on my own, yet I know others can and do. I find it amazing. But maybe after reading this, I can take a leap of faith and just do it.
Looks like Williamsburg, DC, and NYC will be crowded this June. My daughter and I have a girls trip planned there in reverse(while DS and DH are off fishing in the Boundary Waters).
Thanks for this wonderful report. You are an inspiration!

Nikki - thanks. Your Barcelona trip report was an inspiration, and gave us some great restaurant tips.

missypie - thanks, I will check out your Costa Rica report

laartista - The thing that was most amazing to me, was that they just didn't have a lot of stuff. We have so much "stuff" here. Even poor people in America have a ton of "stuff", and I don't think this family was necessarily poor by Moroccan standards. Makes me want to do a major house purge and get rid of stuff. Of course, I just returned from this trip where I bought all this stuff, including the rug in the picture. What I need to get rid of is all the junk that is in the closets that we never wear or use.

Your Thailand trip sounds awesome, how lucky to get the tickets and in business class. Friends of ours have these stunning large marionette puppets they bought in Thailand. That would be my main purchase if we went.

happytotravel - Your cruise sounds great. I would love to go to those places, but I'm with you about doing it from a cruise ship. My BIL & SIL and their two young kids did a similar cruise last summer incl. Istanbul, Egypt and I believe Ephesus. They loved it. Then other friends of ours did Egypt on their own two years ago with their two teenage daughters. They found it fascinating, but did not feel safe, and were happy to come home.

I thought we were being so brave and exotic, but ran into a family at the airport we are acquainted with and they were headed with their 4 kids to Turkey. Driving on their own and they didn't even have all their accomodations nailed down. Now, I am definitely not brave enough to do that!!

amwosu - thanks for the kind remarks. I think the kids did realize how lucky they were to have this experience. My only problem now is, that these last few trips I have always been able to just pick the destination, and now I am getting a lot of comments from the peanut gallery!! But, really, I am so happy that they have taken such an interest in where to go next.

I know that one of the big sins on this board is to come off as a whiner, or to complain about the comfort of one's surroundings when in a different country...but please level with us...How bad was it really to spend the night in a tent amidst the sand? Did sand get in your shoes, clothes, sleeping bags, etc? From the tone of your report, I can tell that any physical discomfort you experienced was totally worth it, but on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the worst), how uncomfortable was the whole sand, camel riding, etc. experience?

I had to laugh at the post above mine where "the guys" are fishing in the Boundary Waters and the girls are going elsewhere. My husband and his brother talk about a Boundary Water vacation, but as soon as I read that there were "box latrines" and that there was a "pack it in/pack it out" rule, I knew I'd never do that!

Sorry again for the earlier hijack and the one now jgg. Wonderful trip report.

Laartista, Thailand sounds amazing! I've always wanted to go there. I'm headed to London and Edinburgh in Sept. Still working on a London flight though...so pricey this year. My sis lives there (London) so I go once or twice a year. Also going to Mexico in November (Merida and Playa del Carmen). Still planning. I spoke to my friend and he'd be happy to speak with you about Barcelona, so drop me a line on my space.

JG- I know I 've seen pix of those marionette puppets they are gorgeous and definitly on the radar. I'm already training Robin in the art of Thai bargaining, a bit different from Berber from what I gather. Then I will sig her on those vendors LOL. I don't know about you but I found sleeping in the desert tent quite comfy and not alot of sand in stuff. Much worse at the beach.

loved the report -thanks you so much for taking so much trouble to let us share it with you.

I particularly liked the description of the bargaining for rugs - on our one and only trip to "arabia", BK [before kids], DH and I spent 2 weeks travelling around Tunisia. as well as the pestering by people wanting money off us for not very much, like you we also met some lovely gracious people.

on the way to sfax in our hired car [boy were we brave in those days] the two collided in our encounter with the rug salesman. 5 kms out of the town, by the side of the road we spotted a small boy, desperately [apparently] trying to get help for the car he was with, which had a flat tyre. "could we take him to his uncle's shop?" he asked. "Of course", we naive fools said - and what a surprise [well, it was to us] when the said uncle turned out to run a carpet shop! many thanks and much tea later, we left, of course with a rug - and a very nice rug it is too.

did we mind ?- well not really - and we still laugh at our gullibility every time we look at the rug.

missypie - I have to say in all honesty it was not that uncomfortable. Now, I don't do any camping tent or trailer (not interested in packing EVERYTHING and then having to do cooking, cleaning, etc.) But I have always figured I could do anything for one night. Plus they packed everything in for us and did all the cooking. I was mostly worried about not having a pillow, but they provided us with a pillow and the mattress. Actually, much more comfortable then sleeping on one of those beds that sags in the middle - hate those.

We didn't really have problem with the sand everywhere, I'm telling you those blankets kept us warm and protected from the sand. In all honesty, the wind storm did keep me awake a bit, but now I look back and am glad I didn't sleep through the whole night in the desert experience. Of course, DS slept through the whole thing - said he never heard the wind.

From a perspective of camping or roughing it I would have to say it was a 7-8 for being comfortable. As a full outdoor experience - definitely a 10!!

kraav - Son wants to go to China. He loves Chinese food and at the tender age of four picked up a pair of chopsticks and starting using them. He's convinced he has some relatives there!!

Daughter wants to go to Thailand - thinks she needs to ride an elephant now. Plus she likes the heat/sun factor.

Husband wanted to go to Thailand but after our long journey home from this trip he even mentioned going back to Hawaii. That's when I brought up the idea of Costa Rica. I think he just needs several weeks behind him to forget the 4 plane rides and carrying that bag with all our treasures and then he will be up for another long trip - LOL!!

I'm slightly more interested in China than Thailand but I do like the idea of spending a few days in a nice resort in Thailand. As soon as I finish this trip report will finish some details for our back east trip in June and then dive in to next spring.

annhig - great story about your rug. I know how you feel. Did I get a good deal on everything? I don't know for sure (although the rugs are definitely cheaper than in the states) but they all bring back great memories.

kraav - if we do decide on China I will definitely have to get some info. from you. Just curious are you doing it completely independently or having a guide for somethings or fully guided? Hey I'm hijacking my own thread...

jgg, my DH has a 2 day conference in Beijing then the tour is arranged through the conference. This will be my first time traveling with a tour, but with the kids it'll provide a comfort level I wouldn't otherwise tackle on my own, in China anyway.

Thanks for a great report. I just found this, so I haven't been following along but do you have any recommendations for Fez? We'll be there for 2 nights at the end of the month and are really flying blind!
Also, I would highly recommend Thailand... we went 1.5 years ago and had an amazing time
Thanks!

ijack - we stayed at Riad Norma (www.riadnorma.com). It is run by Monique a wonderful french woman and Abdel works with her a very sweet Moroccan man. We had two rooms, our room was a very nice large room, our kids room was a bit smaller but both decorated very well. Nice breakfasts and good dinners. Our only complaint was that the water didn't get that hot and sometimes we had problems with the water pressure. We were only there for two nights - the second morning we were hoping maybe the previous morning was just a fluke. If we had stayed there longer we definitely would have asked about it.

Sorry about the weather laartista!! This weekend has been a bit crazy with the usual soccer and basketball games, plus a 40th birthday party and a wedding to go to!!

Thanks for hanging around. Here goes:

Day 12, Wed. March 28

We woke up about 6:30am to get an early start on the long drive to Fez. Before we left La Chance, Abraham wanted to show us some of the fossils he had collected and had polished. We bought a few items. We settled in for our 7 hour drive to Fez. Once again the scenery was stunning! (Sorry, after we got to Fez, DH said, you know I didn’t take any pictures on our drive today). Along the road we did stop for some nomads and gave them some bread and water we had brought from the auberge. They also asked for money, but Zaid told them no.

We stopped in a small town called Zaida for lunch. We were now in the middle of the Atlas Mountains and the weather had changed quite a bit since the morning when we left the desert and we were not quite prepared with our capris and sandals. It was cold and windy. Zaid took us to a restaurant that was quite large – clearly they cater to large tourist buses, but today they were only serving several Moroccan families. There was no heat so it was really cold.

Zaid ordered Moroccan salad, pomme frites and brochette for all of us. The Moroccan salad was one of the best we had on our trip and the brochette was excellent.

We got back in the car for the remaining 3 hour drive. We started to rise in altitude and it began to snow – sometimes quite hard. We had planned to stop at one point to get ouy and see the monkeys but it was still snowing and we were NOT dressed properly, so we just watched them from the car.

We arrived in Fez about 4:30 and went straight to our riad, Riad Norma. We were served tea and pastries, and also were able to meet Ahmed, who would be our guide in Fez the next day. We got settled in, rested a bit and then had a nice tangine dinner in the Riad. The weather was still quite cold in Fez. We had heat in our rooms but the common areas didn’t. However, they had a fire where we were eating, as well as very large portable heaters that they kept by our table.

As I mentioned earlier, this was a very nice riad, and both Monique and Abdel were extremely helpful and attentive to our needs. As I mentioned we did have a problem with water pressure and water temperature, but never did mention it to them due to our short stay.

Day 13, Thurs. March 29

We had a full day ahead of us with our guide Ahmed. He was excellent, full of information and willing to answer all our questions. We covered a lot of ground this day. Unfortunately, for most of the morning it was raining quite a bit. Umbrellas were definitely required. We first just starting wandering the streets. As I mentioned, I think Fez is even more of a rabbit warren then Marakkech, plus there is no big squre (like Djemma El Fna) to sort of get your bearings in, and no motorized vehicles are allowed in the old medina – apparently it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We first came upon an old woman carrying unbaked bread to be cooked by the baker. Ahmed explained that they will make the bread, but then bring it to the baker so he can cook it for them and they don’t have to wait at home while it bakes, but can go do their shopping, etc. He asked the woman if DH could bring her bread to the baker for her. She gladly agreed, Ahmed walked us to the bakery, then told DH to go inside and hand the baker the bread. He said he would know whose bread it was without even seeing her bring it in.

Then we went to see some hammam ovens, where we saw two men who work all day keeping the ovens warm that heat the local hammam. We were able to see inside a mosque as well as take pictures – something we were unable to do in Marakkech. We couldn’t walk inside but were able to stand right outside the door. This was a large mosque and apparently, a special one as pilgrims came here regularly from other parts of the country and would sleep inside.

We wandered the streets and souks. We saw the entrance to University Al Karaouine. The oldest university in the world (although after returning home and doing some internet research there is a university in Istanbul and one in Cairo that both make that claim – although the Guiness book of World Records recognizes Al Karaouine as the oldest). Maimonides the great Jewish philsopher and physican studied here. I just want to interject at this point, that both Ahmed our Fez guide and Latif, our Marakkech guide, independently mentioned to us that the Jews and Arabs in Morocco had always gotten along, and they considered themselves Moroccan brothers. “Not like what is happening in other parts of the world today, ” they said. The Jews had acted as the middlemen between the Moroccans and the French during the time of the French protectorate. However, apparently, in the early 1960’s when Israel called for Jews to populate Israel, many Moroccan Jews moved to Israel. The majority of Jews in Morocco today live in Casablanca where most of the business is. Latif actually said, “We wept when the Jews left Morocco”. Ahmed also mentioned to us that Morocco was the first country in the world to recognize the independence of America from the British in 1776. He said, “We helped you when you were in need, now America must help Morocco when it is in need.” Perhaps buy another rug???

Well, next stop was a rug shop. DH said we don’t have to go in, but it was still raining, not quite time for lunch and I wouldn’t mind sitting down and having some tea, so we went in. They first took us up to the roof which had beautiful views of the city and surrounding countryside. You can really see how beautiful the area is. We did take several pictures, unfortunately it was pretty overcast. From there we were served tea and shown several rugs. I really was not all that interested in buying another rug, until one caught my eye – how do they do that?? Perfect colors for our family room. Well this was our best job at bargaining yet (laartista – Robin would have been proud). We came up with our number, and then we said and we want you to ship it. They insisted that they would bundle it up so we could just carry it home, but I said no way – we already have our basket of treasures. They said, well we need to add more for shipping, and we said, nope then we don’t want it, but we finally got our way on that one. By the way, all of our rugs arrived the week after we came home except for the rugs we bought in the desert. They still haven’t come – but those were the only ones that were sent by regular mail, so I expect them to take a bit longer. To be honest, I was quite surprised how quickly the other ones came.

When we came out of the rug shop it had finally stopped raining. Next we headed off to the tanneries. I had really wanted to see them in Marakkech, but apparently they are about 15-20 minutes outside of the medina and we just didn’t have time. The tanneries in Fez are located in the medina so it was easy to get to. You first enter a huge leather goods store (surprise, surprise!!) and they hand you a sprig of mint before you walk upstairs to view the tannery. Wow!! The smell was strong but the sight incredible. This is one of those places, where you have seen the pictures in the guidebook and now you actually get to see it for yourself. Just incredible to watch them work down there. I asked if they had been working when it was pouring rain and was told yes. I bought a camel leather purse and DD bought some small purses for a few friends. My bargaining skills were off here and when I was done, I was like – why did I pay so much??

I told Ahmed I wanted to get a scarf and DD wanted an embroidered shirt, so he took us to another shop. DH and DS tried on jalabas and fez. DH said it was really comfy, and he would love to walk around in it, but didn’t think he could get away with it at home. We just got the fez for DS and a scarf for me and one for DD. Got a really good deal on those, so I was feeling better about my overpayment in the leather shop. I digress for a moment, but several years ago we had gone to DisneyWorld for spring break. In Epcot’s World Showcase there is Morocco. While we were there I had considered buying DS a fez, but then just thought, oh that’s really something you should only buy if you are actually in the real country. At the time, I never would have thought I would actually end up going to Morocco!!!
Now it was lunch time so Ahmed dropped us off in a nice restaurant in the medina and we had a nice lunch. They had pastille (the ground chicken with the pastry shell) on the menu so we all ordered that.

After lunch Zaid picked us all up and drove us outside of the medina to the pottery factory Art Naji. We were given a guide who spoke very good English and gave us a tour of the factory. It was really quite interesting. How they crushed and dried the soil to make the clay, The fiery kilns with their big black smoke. The men stoking the fires by throwing more fuel in with their feet. They use crushed olive pits as they will burn the hottest. We were able to stand in a kiln that had not been used for 10 days, when we walked inside it still felt like a sauna. We saw the craftspeople drawing on the designs by hand and painting everything by hand. They were mostly younger people in their early twenties. But what was really incredible was seeing the men hand chip the tiles into intricate designs for different mosaics. (laartista – you need to see this!!)

I did buy a few small pottery pieces. This was the only place I had been to in Morocco where they had prices on things. No bargaining here. I’m sure I could have done better in the medina, but it was nearing the end of the day, and we were tired – actually, no bargaining seemed like a good idea. I would have loved to order a mosaic table top – I have just the table outside for it – but will have to wait for the next trip!!

From here Zaid drove us to the Jewish Quarter and the Kings Palace. We strolled around this intereting part of the city. By this time it was almost 6:00 and we had to get back and start packing for our long journey home. Zaid took us back to the riad and we said goodbye to Ahmed. We had decided earlier to just have dinner in the riad again, which was a good idea as we were beat.

We loved Fez, and our only regret is that we only had one day there. We were able to see quite a lot, but it would have been nice to have one more day to just leisurely walk the souks and shops.

I love this last installment. First, too funny! " perhaps buy a rug", I laughed out loud at that one. I love the pictures of the artisans. We didn't see any at work, a bummer. Good thing I probably would have sat myself down and helped make a table top or something. That would have been cool. I bought my parents jabalas and they love them, wear them all the time. Score on your final rug. It's HUGE! and gorgeous. I've been kicking myself for not buying even 1. Glad you got a good berber deal on that. Your report is excellent and again very fun to read.

Missypie: I don't know what you are used to when traveling- 4 stars or budget- but, IMO sleeping in the Sahara is a MUST! It really isn't that bad. I slept outside of the tent because I wanted to stare at the stars. Needless to say, I was cold, but we hadn't planned on going into the desert so I only had jean capris and a long sleeved shirt on. I must have seen 30 shooting stars. You will never regret it.

Ijack: I stayed at Hotel Batha in Fez. It was in the Old City right outside of the Blue Gate(entrance to the medina). I would definitely recommend it. Clean, authentic, decent breakfast and we got a great deal.

Well, today we began our 2 day trek back home. I used frequent flier miles that only allow for a RT ticket so we had to fly home out of Barcelona. Zaid drove us the 3.5 hours from Fez to Casablanca. This drive was much less mountainous and more agricultural. Really very pretty, and we were also able to get glimpses of the Mediteranean. We had great conversation with Zaid, including one particular discussion about marriage.

Zaid explained that in Morocco, the muslim religion allows you to have up to four wives. Although, these days if you are going to have multiple wives most men only have two, as it is two expensive to be equal to four wives. The husband must get permission from the first wife and if marrying a 3rd wife would need to get permission from the 1st and 2nd. He explained that this is most common if the first wife doesn't want or can't have kids, and the husband wants a family. I explained to him that this does not happen in America. That you can only have one wife at a time. He seemed genuinely surprised, "Even if the first wife doesn't want kids??" he asked. Yes, I explained, got to divorce the first one, and I went on, I don't think you would ever find an American woman allowing her husband to marry a second wife!!

We stopped on the outskirts of Casablanca in a small restaurant (where again the bathrooms were suspect, so I waited for the airport). Our last meal of bread and brochette!! DS really wanted Zaid to take us to McDonald's so he could get a hamburger but we said, no way, not for our last meal.

Zaid dropped us off at the Casablanca airport and we all said goodbye. Just a few notes about the airport - and I assume this is similar in all of Morocco. In order to even get inside the airport terminal you must go through a security check and have all your baggage screened. So, please allow extra time for this. Actually, it makes perfect sense to screen people before they even enter the terminal.

The second thing is about changing your money. I had read here that they don't want you taking dirhams out of the country, so I figured there would be obvious places to exchange your money. We asked at the ticket counter if there were places to exchange money after passport control. We thought she said yes, but apparenetly she must of misunderstood us, as it turned out to only be before passport control. I had wanted to keep a little bit of money as a souvenier, but we didn't want to have to go back through passport control so we ended up with a more money than we wanted. I guess we will have to spend it on a return trip!

We were all craving chocolate as it appeared to not be that prevalent in Morocco. We decided to buy some at the duty free store. I have never actually had the need to shop at the duty free and just want to know - why is everything they sell there so big?? We couldn't get just a few small candy bars but had to buy this giant toblerone, and unfortunately they wouldn't take our extra dirhams only euros.

I stopped in a little bookstore as I wanted to buy a book with photographs of Morocco, and I figured it would be a good way to spend some dirhams. They had the DK Morocco book but it was equivalent to $48USD! DS said "why don't you Berber bargain", but I explained to him not in the airport, and I would just wait until we got home to buy it.

From Casablanca we flew straight to Barcelona, but the time we landed got our luggage, returned to the hotel and were ready to eat it was after 10:00pm - lucky for us Barcelona eats dinner late, we were right on time for the dinner hour. Our plan was to head to Cerverseria Catalana for the tapas I had been daydreaming about. The guy at the front desk, mentioned that they had a sister restaurant several blocks closer called Ciudad Condal (Rambla Catlyuna, 18). The shorter walk sounded appealing so we went there for dinner. We had to wait about 45 minutes to get seated, but the food was worth it!! Our last good meal for awhile as tomorow would be limited to airplane and airport food.

Other than lugging our basket of treasures home, our 3 more flights home were uneventful and we arrived safely home about midnight Sat. night.

What a great trip report, jgg! Your kids are very lucky that you and your husband are willing to take them on such adventures, despite common misperceptions about what countries like Morocco are like.

My husband and I went to Spain (Barcelona, Cadaques and Madrid) and Morocco for our honeymoon in 2005. I never got around to posting a full trip report, but this thread has a story about one of our experiences during the Moroccan part of the trip.

I wasn't always physically comfortable during that trip, but I never felt unsafe. Moroccans are very hospitable and friendly.

For those parents who are curious about travelling with their families to a country like Morocco (or perhaps another country in the Middle East, North Africa or the Gulf) but somewhat apprehensive about issues like hygiene, safety, etc - I would highly recommend Oman as a first step. We went to Oman last spring and it was also a wonderful experience. There were none of the food/water issues we had to worry about in Morocco (so it's a good choice for families with small kids). Oman has only opened up recently to tourism, and so its traditional, relatively conservative culture is quite visible. At the same time, no one ever made us feel as though they disapproved of us for not being like them. And it's the safest place I've ever been to in the world (and I grew up in a small town in Canada). We even picked up hitchhikers ...

In Morocco, one option for those who aren't quite ready for the "full medina" experience would be to stay at the Club Med, which is right at the gates of the old medina. This would allow you to experience the medina but stay in somewhat more familiar surroundings.

Kate - Thanks for sharing your story. We did not encounter anything quite that adventurous, but as you learned those experiences can allow us to really get a glimpse of another culture and remain our fondest memories.

Now that someone else has brought it up, jgg, I don't believe you mentioned what you did about water...did you drink solely bottled water in Morocco? (I have no idea whether Morocco has "water issues" for Westerners or not.)

Yes we drank only bottled water and also used it to brush our teeth. All the riads we stayed at were always giving us giant bottles of water to take with us for the day. When they cleaned our rooms they would leave bottles for us. In all honesty I don't think we ever bought a bottle the whole time we were there, except at a restaurant.

The British riad owner where we first stayed in Morocco also recommended that we be very careful to wash our hands (or use hand sanitizer) after handling Moroccan money. She said that most visitors to Morocco are quite careful about food and water, but forget about what they might be picking up via hand contact, in particular handling money. We followed her advice and didn't have any trouble.

I also must confess that after our lunch of fresh fruit & veg we hadn't peeled oursevles and a look at the "toilet" in our Berber B&B in Tachedirt, I decided to take Immodium prophylactically (i.e. to prevent myself from needing it later). You really should not do this - but there was no way I was going to deal with that kind of a problem in that kind of a place.

you reminded me of our experience on the train from southern tunisia to tunis, after sampling the palm juice at the oasis, the day before we were due to travel. Fortunately we were booked on "tout comfort" - the equivalent of about 2nd class - with proper european toilets.

i don't think i sat in my proper seat for more than half of the journey. Nor did DH - we took it in turns.[so to speak]

By the time we got to tunis, we'd got it out of our systems, so we were able to laugh as we saw the goats getting out of the third class carriages!

I JUST found this. I knew you must have gone already, but I have been running like a chicken without a head because of the start of the season!! I have not even read your report yet, so I am going to do so tonight with a glass of wine and a snack (please tell DH a very good Barbera by the way, and tell DS a big plate of prociutto with that....). I skimmed and saw you had a great time, and I will settle in for the details now!!!

bella - was out of town for a few days and see now that you found my report. Yes, as you can see we had a fantastic time, and must thank you again, as you and Mischa were instrumental in giving us the final nudge to go ahead and go. After we returned home from our wonderful visit to Italy we booked our tickets to Barcelona and Morocco!! We tried to do Sevilla, but it was just going to be too difficult to get from Sevilla to Marakkech by plane. We loved Barcelona and can't wait to get back and visit Sevilla and other parts of Southern Spain.

Surprise, surprise but DS's favorite snack was a jambon sandwich at the tapas bars!!

I was rereading this while here in Barcelona this morning and comparing notes as we did lots of similar things with kids.Fun to relive some of it!

The weather was fantastic when we were in Fez and you did not go that much before us, so that surprised me. We ran into some cold weather ( unusual) & rain some while in Seville for Holy Week, so maybe that pattern affected you too in Fez. It was hot in Fez when we were there.

Of course it has been mostly hot here too in Barcelona & we are hanging out at the 3 pools here a lot recovering from our fast travel in Morocco. I think there is a warm trend in much of Europe now as we are headed to Italy soon and I hear it is gorgeous there too in Rome of late. I hope we get to Greece before it gets too hot.

I had only skimmed the Barcelona part before leaving,so came for that this morning,but ended up reliving Morocco with you again too.

Our Morocco trip still haunts me in a good way, are you still processing it? Maybe its because I am still uploading the blog entries on it, altho I talked to a friend who says she is still processing it in a good way and she went last year!

I think more families from America should go as it is so much easier than people realize and Oh so worth it!!

Like you I worried a lot before hand,but once there I saw how senseless that was. The drive to the desert is definitely worth it. I thnk that is the highlight for most Moroccan trips.

Like you mentioned,there is just nothing like being in the dunes of the Sahara. It is every school kids fantasy. The educational opportunities are spectacular in Morocco ...like taking a time machine back to the middle ages in Fez or back to the roman baths in the ancient hammam we took together in Essouria.

I call it the ultimate unschooling adventure! Thanks for all your details and I hope your popular trip report can encourage other parents to take the jump as it is one heck of a vacation!!

jgg:
For your fmily and the few others who chimed in that Morocco is not so difficult, may I add that wife and I did Morocco by driving ourselves....over 2000 miles, visiting Fez, Erg Chebbi area, Todra Gorges, Dada Gorges, Ouarzazate, Zagora and points east, Marrakech, Essaouira and Casblanca/Rabat. Had no problems of
any kind,found the food superb, the locals were warm and friendly all over, on the Top Five list of places we've visited...so don't hesitate evryone..Morocco is doable and well worth doing.
Happy to hear, jgg, that Al Fassia is still operating...we loved it but heard it had closed last year.
Stu T.

gruezi - I am glad you found the trip report helpful. It was a fabulous trip for us and I am sure you and your daughter will enjoy it as well.

tower - I agree with your words of encouragement for others to consider Morocco as a travel destination. Definitely one of our top trips as well. We were at Al Fassia last March so I hope it is still open. It was great to see an establishment that was completely run by women!!

JGG, Thank you for posting this wonderful travelogue. My husband and I have booked a 2-week trip with Blue Men of Morocco for this October and are very excited about making this grand voyage. You do a wonderful service by posting such a detailed account of your trip. It sounds like you had a terrific time and is helping me get excited. Thanks!

Loved this report!
We're going to be in Barcelona for a day on a European cruise this summer with our teenagers, and your descriptions have been great for helping us prioritize what to see in one day...
Annette

Wow, I just read your trip report. Don't know how I missed it. We were in Morocco, then Spain, just after you went and loved it too. Fez, the desert, the food were all great. Thanks for having it written it - and I am sorry I hadn't seen it before we went!

I see you're in Cambodia now, which is wonderful. My favorite place in the world. I hope you're having a good time, that you you enjoyed the people as much as we did (and the temples of course). If you get some free time back in Bangkok, by the way, I highly recommend a stroll through the amulet market. An interesting slice of Thai life that's a nice diversion from the heavily touristed sites. Watching monks haggle and pour over bins of little carvings and icons, looking for just the right one... memorable!

We're off to Barcelona in Feb... Judging by your pictures, I can see why people didn't necessarily think you were American. You have a cosmopolitan air about you...even th kids do. My DH however, sticks out as if he was wearing the Red/White and Blue so I fear we look like sitting ducks. Although we've always been very careful and never had an issue, how did you handle money to foil the pickpockets? Did places accept cards? Did you leave your passports in a hotel safe? Any suggestions you could offer would be helpful.

Huny - We always keep our passports in the hotel safe. I carry copies. For our money and credit cards we keep them in a little soft wallet that has a tab that goes on our belt buckle. Then when I carried my purse I always carried it "bandolier" style across my chest, and would hold it close to my body if I ever thought I was in a situation that warranted it.

We found the majority of places accepted credit cards. I think it is just important to be cautious and vigilante. But we honestly didn't do anything more than we usually do when we travel, except probably be more aware - particularly after the ladies purse got stolen!

Better late than never. I wish to thank you all for the lovely and accurate description of your experience of traveling with Blue Men of Morocco and coming to the desert. I enjoyed reading it and will tell Zaid about it. He is a lovely driver (I also have others that are good) and keeps people out of trouble! For clarity, I am co owner of Haven la Chance and do all the work for our company- Blue Men of Morocco Co. I just have never checked out the forum on Fodor's although I have heard good comments about our company were posted here.

I also want to mention that we will have a great NYE celebration for 2011 at our hotel and still have some vacancies.
The Black Gnawi Musicians, Mechui, Bonfire all outside under the stars! Wine and champagne and mince meat tarts. we also have several nomad tents right by the hotel available that makes it more interesting than just the hotel. Elena Hall

Elena - happy to tell others of what a great trip we had with Blue Men of Morocco and our stay at Haven la Chance in Merzouga. Another fodorite friend is leaving tomorrow for Morocco and is using Blue Men - she is excited to have Zaid!!